We're Leaving Now; The Wars Remain

As President Obama stood with Afghan President Karzai to announce the Afghanization of the war, it seems appropriate to weigh the president's words on the way out against his words on the way in. We were in Afghanistan, of course, long before he got there, but the president's 2009 address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point announced the "surge" of 33,000 additional American troops to the war and he used the word "I" 321 times out of a total of 3,507 words. That qualifies as ownership.
In 2009, going in, the president made three points:
• What: "Our overarching goal remains the same: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to prevent its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future."
• Why: "There is no imminent threat of the government being overthrown, but the Taliban has gained momentum. Al Qaeda has not reemerged in Afghanistan in the same numbers as before 9/11, but they retain their safe-havens along the border...I am...(Read Full Article)